Why is it that professionals and those with lots of time, spend their winter doing steady training miles? One of the core components of  our sport on the road is endurance. Its essential that we are efficient to maximise our endurance, and one of the main areas where efficiency can be achieved is in energy production. If you can put out as many watts as possible while being fuelled by fat, then you can save your precious and scarce glycogen stores for the more intense power-endurance efforts like climbing, bridging, breaking and time trialling. The pros develop their fat-burning abilities by getting in as many hours as possible at 75 -85% Max heart rate. We can do the same. There are, however, other ways to stimulate metabolism of fat, involving timing and intensity of exercise and nutrition in order to train your hormones. Not got enough time train? Reda the next post to find out more about hormone training and fat utilisation………